Almost everyone has heard of GMail and is familiar with their logo. Some people are even wise enough to know that their email address, let’s say it is example@gmail.com, is also valid as example@googlemail.com. Not everyone has seen the Google Mail logo before as pictured here.

It isn’t anything really special but the people in the United Kingdom see this logo everyday that they use Google’s email services. Despite me knowing that the @googlemail.com emails were out there it never popped into my head that they would have a different logo as well.

Google didn’t really have a choice when it came to using GMail in the UK. They wanted to use it but they briefly described what happened on their help page:

We have been involved in a dispute regarding the Gmail trademark in the UK. Another company has claimed rights to the Gmail name. We have tried to resolve this dispute through negotiations, but our efforts have failed.

Just out of curiosity to try and find this other company that claimed these rights I tried finding the site gmail.co.uk but it is non-existent. I was then able to find the site in the Google Cache and this is what it looks like:

I wonder if Google is finally getting somewhere since the site appears to be taken down. Maybe UK users will also get the @gmail.com domain soon?